Crafter...oo Issue 2

Issue 2 of Crafteroo Magazine is out right now please go check it out on Crafter...oo. The online magazine is only £1.50 and packed with projects and articles written by some very talented crafters. I have a tutorial (Wired for Sound page 10) and a thrifting article (For the Love of Thrifting page 14-15). Many thanks go to Kerry for all her hard work editing the issue and being all around fabulous! Please pop by the forum and buy a copy of the Crafter...oo for download.

button bookmarks

ingredients:

vintage buttons

craft glue

wooden coffee stirrers (I saved mine from Starbucks but plenty of other coffee shops have them)

Instructions:

1. clean and dry your coffee stirrers so they aren't covered in coffee, sugar, and syrup.

2. choose buttons.

3. glue buttons to coffee stirrers. let dry and bookmark your place in a book.
crafter's notes: a tiny simple craft to keep kids occupied. If you can bare to part with a few buttons... and suffer through drinking a coffee while out and about in the shops. The burdens we have as parents sometimes. :o) a fun quick craft project that can travel well, so that you need only bring a few buttons and a smidge of glue or double-sided tape with you when sitting in a coffee shop. Any excuse for more coffee. :o)

tshirt necklace with vintage keys

This morning I thought i would make a tshirt necklace. It's been on my craft list for ages and I thought I would have a go at making one while I had some spare time. I diligently googled 't-shirt necklace tutorials' 't-shirt scarves diy' etc and failed at every turn to find a tutorial I liked, or a picture that actually led to a tutorial, several had been yanked from their blogs with no explanations. No help at all. I grumbled on twitter and my friend Juanita said :

tortillaloaves Juanita C.

@

@meridianariel Surely you can come up with something better :)

So I went digging though my t-shirts and remembered the knit tshirt scarflette I made the other year. I dug out the t-shirt scarflette which was hiding behind some books in my bedside cabinet and unravelled it. The tutorial I wrote for making t-shirt yarn is here if you want to give it a go its pretty simple and you can use seemed t-shirts which I have more of than unseemed.

Instead of using loops of t-shirt I wound the t-shirt yarn around my hand and a know on my chest of drawers (but you can get someone to help you) I place the yarn around my neck pulling at the strands till they went the way I wanted them too then I tied the ends of the yarn together around all of the strands. If at any time I can undo the knots and remake the yarn into something else. I think took three small vintage keys and looped yarn through them to hold them in place. The whole craft took less than 15 minutes. The yarn is still wiggly from being knit but I like the effect and am sure it will fall out eventually.

a pincushion tutorial...ish

Today instead of doing the crafting I'm mean to be doing I made a little pincushion. Don't worry i will be doing some of the crafting I NEED to get done a little later after I have consumed vast quantities of coffee and had a little stroll around town. Tomorrow is an inset day at school before half term so I'm determined to get the most out of today and have some me time. Which includes sewing for no reason and going for a stomp around town with my ipod blaring in my ears. Anyway here is a little tutorial that you can use to justify the buying of chocolate. Seriously.

ingredients:
1 package of Sainsbury's pots au chocolat (or any alternative pudding in a little pot)

a spoon

dish soap

fabric

pins

toy filler

all purpose craft glue

these are the puddings you are looking for.

instructions:

1. Open the package of pots au chocolat. Using the spoon scarf down one pot. the wash the ceramic pot with the dish soap and set aside to dry.

2. cut a circle from your fabric that is roughly twice as big as the pot au chocolat ramekin.

3. carefully sew around the fabric circle about a quarter of an inch from the edge. Gently pull the threads together creating a little pouch to stuff to the gills with toy filler. Carefully tie the threads together. It doesn't matter if it looks messy no one will see it.

4. making sure the ramekin is perfectly dry squeeze out a large dollop of glue in the bottom of the pot.

5. carefully place the fabric puff into the pot. You may need to hold it for a minute or two so that the glue adheres to the fabric. And there you go a new pincushion.

crafter's notes: The fabric is a pink and white harlequin that I received in the Alice in Wonderland craft swap. I will probably give the pincushion away as I'm not big on pink but I am pleased with how the pincushion turned out and as there is a second empty ramekin floating about the kitchen I might use that one too.

Spider Jar

spiders caught in a jar

a Mini Halloween Tutorial

ingredients:

1x medium jar

a small amount of fake spider webbing

2x plastic spiders

instructions:

*Turn the jar upside down and place the webbing so that it goes up half the jar.

*Place your spiders on the webbing and then screw the lid back on the jar. You can add a small stick or some autumn leaves to make the jar more effective.

a super simple little project that kids of any age will love to do.. it costs pennies to make and recycles a jar. Harrison took great glee in showing the jar to Matt when he got home.

halloween pegs tutorial

halloween pegs

Ingredients:
wooden clothes pegs (or the mini craft pegs)
twine
acrylic paint (orange and black)
water
paintbrushes
vintage buttons
glue

directions:
1. put a dab of paint onto a small plate and add a little water to it.

2. paint the pegs with the watery paint so that the paint soaks into the wood of the pegs.

3. let the pegs dry (you may need to wipe them down with a cloth or tissue to get a more rustic effect.

4. dab glue onto the back of a vintage button and glue it to your peg.

5. clip your pegs to the twine or anywhere you please. Or give them away as a little gift.


cook's note: its a simple project, a fun thing for kids to help do, great for holding cards, decorations or scraps of fabric. I have misplaces the craft magnets I bought ages ago but if I do find them I plan to stick them to the back of one of the pegs to make a magnetic clip.

button jewellery a mini tutorial

the Red Queen Pendant

ingredients:

vintage buttons
craft glue
glue on bails (or small pin backs)
needle and thread thread
chain or necklace

Instructions:

step 1: gather materials together and stack two or three buttons together until you find a combination that you love.

step 2: thread the needle and sew your stack of buttons together (alternatively you can glue them on top of each other, but I like the look of the thread keeping the buttons together)

step 3: decide where the bail/pin back will go on the back of the stack and place a few drops of glue on the back of the button and on the flat part of the pendant bail. Leave for a few seconds then stick the bail/pin back to the button stack.

step 4: let the glue dry then string the button pendant on a chain or pin the button pin to anything!

crafter's notes: I know it is only a super simple tutorial but it is fun and funky, and I will happily be wearing the red, black, and mother of pearl button pendant when I go out today. The pin below was my first attempt with a large renegade chartreuse button that had hidden in one of my button jam jars. If anyone wants it I will gladly give it away as chartreuse and I are no friends (the colour makes me look ill or possibly just a very lively zombie).

Chartreuse it is